William de cotocy pbibeattx



W. DE C. PRIDEAUX. AMMUNITION BELT FOR MACHINE GUNS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY l5-19I8.

Patented May 27, 1919.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 27, 1919.

Application filed July 15. 1918. Serial No. 245,048.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM on OoURoY PRIDEAUX, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Weymouth, Dorset, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements Connected with Ammunition-Belts for Machine-Guns, of which the following is a specification.

In ammunition belts for machine guns and the like as generally'now constructed and in order to insure that the cartridges pass through the feed block in a perfectly parallel manner such belts have been constructed from two pieces of webbing connected together by eyelets and brass strips'of two lengths the projecting strips showing how far the cartridges should be inserted and such belt is made thick at the edge next the bullets by being folded over a piece of cord so that the cartridges may be kept parallel with the feed block while being passed through and lie evenly in the ammunition boxes. In belts made wholly of metal no means have been adopted to insure this parallel movement of the cartridges, and the consequence is the two pawls which'engage the cartridges or the band do not act evenly. In fact only one pawl acts upon each cartridge or the belt, the pawls only being made to work a fabric belt, and consequently the cartridges are moved unevenly and the strain exerted during the working sometimes breaks the metallic belt.

Now the object of my invention is to construct a wholly metallic belt having clips embracing the two unequal diameters of the cartridge case in such a manner that both pawls in pushing the cartridges and belts through the feed block shall act equally and thus insure the cartridges passing in a parallel'manner through the feed block.

The belt may be ofthe construction, set forth in my application for British Patent No. 15828/1915 or of .a similar construction in which clips embrace the cartridges at their two unequal diameters and for the purpose of this invention I remove a portionof one of the clips embracing the larger end of the cartridge so that .the larger diameter of the cartridge (not the rim) and the diameter of the clip next the bullet end of the'cartridge shall be the same or approximately the same whereby both pawls may act evenly upon one clip and the cartridge.

By this invention the same gun can be used for work with fabric or wholly metal belts without in any way altering the construction of the gun or its parts.

The annexed drawings show (on an enlarged scale) two examples of links with yfvhich my invention can be carried'into efect.

Figure 1 is a plan and Fig. 2 is a perspective elevation showing a-link constructed in accordance with the link shown and described in my British Patent No. 15828 of 1915.

Fig. 3 is a plan and Fig. 4: a perspective elevation of a link constructed from a base having two clips on each side the clips being staggered so that when two links are placed side by side with the neighboring clips in line the links can be connected together by a cartridge being 1passed through the clips and acting as a pint e.

According tomy invention, I cut away a portion B of the clip 3 which engages the larger diameter of the cartridge so that the outer diameter of the clip 2 which engages the smaller diameter of the cartridge will be equal to the inner diameter of the clip 3 or the thick part of the cartridge so that the pawls will act equally upon the clip 2.

and the cartridges.

Although I have only shown the invention applied to two constructions of metallic links my invention is equally applicable to other constructions of metallic links. I

What I do claim as my invention, and

desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

WILLIAM DE COURGY P RIDEAUX.

Witnesses:

RICHARD CORE GARDNER, Jnssrn MORGAN. 

